303. INFANZIA SBS. Halloween

L’articolo ci spiega come si può sperimentare la celebrazione di una festa appartenente a una cultura diversa dalla nostra e creare confronti ed esperienze arricchenti per un bagaglio sempre più multiculturale.

As soon as the calendar turns to October, Halloween and its celebration becomes a super hot topic especially in schools.  Suddenly many questions arise such as ‘Are we going to celebrate it?’ ‘Can the teachers and the children dress up?’ ‘Are we going to decorate our classrooms?’ ‘What’s allowed and what is not, full costumes or just a simple accessory?’ ‘Is it a pagan festivity?’ and so on and on……


Well this may come as a surprise to some of you but Halloween has significant Catholic roots. The name itself comes from All Hallow’s Eve - that is the Vigil of All Saints’ Day, when Catholics remember those who have gone before us to enter the heavenly home.  The memory of those who have passed naturally leads to thoughts of mortality and can create an atmosphere of gloom.

However, we don't want to bore you with the history of this dreary festivity too much.
We simply would like to share what we did with the little Red Bunnies (3 years old) at our pre-school.
For us every opportunity is a good one to get our hands dirty, have fun and of course learn something of use.  
We’ve selected six spooky words which will actually be useful in everyday’s life:

-spider (if you are scared of them you better know how to name them)

-witch (you never know you might have one in your extended family)

-skeleton (we all have bones in our body)

-pumpkin (part of useful food vocabulary)

-bat (better look out for them, you don't want to get them stuck in your hair)

-ghost (up to you whether you believe in them or not, nowadays we are surrounded by living ghosts anyway)

We played many games with these words, carved some pumpkins and made our own Jack-o-Lanterns and with our hands we painted using the pulp we removed!
This was an extremely hands-on activity which the kids absolutely adore.  We even lit some candles inside one of the lanterns and spooked everyone in the nap room.
We danced like crazy and sang many spooky songs!
We made some very handy ghosts with paper and recycled plastic bags which we then used to go trick or treating around the other classrooms.

We just had bags of fun and it really goes to show that when you learn through engaging and amusing activities the kids are more willing to participate and challenge themselves and in addition they retain information in a better and lasting way.